Valencia SC: Series race two report

Nico Hulkenberg claimed his fourth win of the season after steering
clear of the early race mayhem before walking away from Sergio Perez
and Vitaly Petrov to claim an easy victory in race two this morning at
Valencia.
The win was set up at the...

Nico Hulkenberg claimed his fourth win of the season after steering
clear of the early race mayhem before walking away from Sergio Perez
and Vitaly Petrov to claim an easy victory in race two this morning at
Valencia.

The win was set up at the start: Hulkenberg made a storming start to put
himself in the best position to capitalise on any problems ahead. It was
a smart move: Luca Filippi made an equally impressive getaway from the
dirty side of the track to edge past poleman Kamui Kobayashi, who tapped
his real wheel and spun the Italian at turn one, blocking the track and
causing a predictable mess and a visit by the safety car.

At the restart Kobayashi held on despite his broken front wing, with
Roldan Rodriguez trying to get by and spinning himself into the wall
instead, promoting Hulkenberg to second as the safety car made a return,
which became the lead just ahead of Perez at the restart as Kobayashi
answered the black and orange flag being waved for his front wing.

The Mexican threw everything he had at his rival, while immediately
behind him teammate Edoardo Mortara knocked Alvaro Parente into a spin
to scatter the field behind, with Petrov finding the right line through
the tyre smoke to put himself side by side with Jerôme d'Ambrosio,
although he had to wait until the final turn before the move could stick
for fourth, just as the safety car returned once more.

Mortara cut across the Russian's bow at the restart but was soon handed
a drive through for causing the Parente spin, and yesterday's top three
were back in control, albeit in a different configuration. Hulkenberg
was able to set a string of fastest laps to build another strong lead
over Perez, who held on admirably for the rest of the race to claim
second just ahead of Petrov.

D'Ambrosio was fourth, a suitable reward for a patient drive, although
he had his mirrors full of Diego Nunes' iSport for the second half of
the race. Karun Chandhok claimed the final point to make up for losing
out on the point he lost yesterday due to broken suspension, although
Davide Rigon pushed him all the way to the flag for the position, while
in the championship battle Hulkenberg stretched his legs once again to
lead rival Petrov by 20 points as they look towards next weekend in
Spa-Francorchamps.